I have a 05 msc and the passenger seat is broken. Mini said the frame was bent. Now it won't recline past te first click.

Honestly who ever herd of such a thing? A broken seat?

So I need a solution to fix it. No the smash it thing did not work.

Help! Is there a repair?

 

Help is here.

See the whole thread as well. It often takes a LOT of force to get it done, but fix rate is high.

 

Tried this and it does not seem to fix it.

 

Elucidate. Didn't fix it because it never 'cracked', never locked, what? Are the levers parallel?
What is the failure mode? How does 'broken' manifest itself? Won't recline? Won't not recline? Tough to diagnose remotely. Even tougher if you don't know what constitutes broken.

 

My passanger seat will recline or come forward, but it will not click into place. Its stuck at a really awkward position and seems to only click at that position.

 

This happened to me (provided we are encountering the same problem) a few months ago. It took a lot of tries and yes A LOT of force for the seat to finally make a loud CRACK! and then it worked good as knew.

 

Ok more detail. The levers are parallel and the seat will fold and glide forward to allow the kids in the back.the seat moves all the way back into position but the back only reclines from the folded forward position to the first stop. It will go no further. So it's very uncomfortable to sit it since you have to lean forward. Mini looked at it (they did not take it apart or anything) and said it has a bent rail. $1,000 to fix.

But who ever heard of this. Mini should be doing a recall of this issue.

 

I don't think it is a bent rail. That sounds like what happened to my seat.

 

Refer to JohnW94's post and my original. Lots of effort, multiple tries. Mine was the exact same way. Get a bigger friend to help you manhandle it. Brute force is the only way.

 

You may as well try to force it to go back. If it is broken, or bent as they say, it's already gonna have to be replaced. Unfortunately, if this is a r50, or an R53 the dealer may not have given you the right info. I've been to the Denver MINI dealer to have major work done, and you would've thought I took a Chevy to them. They knew it was a MINI, but they ordered the wrong parts, and replaced big $$ parts before they found what the original problem was. Also I had to take the MINI back to them twice. They are used to working on newer models, and these older ones are like totally different cars to them. Not all dealers suck though.
You can save a lot of money and time just forcing the seat back yourself.
If you're a member of a MINI club, get in touch with your fellow club members and see if they can lend you a hand. That's one of the perks of being in a club. If not, now you have a reason to join one!!

 

I had the exact same problem when I bought my car (used). All the known solutions didn't work, it wasn't under warranty, so it was replaced with another seat from a totaled Mini.

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